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ed. The blacks presented me to their king, I approached his throne, and saluted him as I used to do the kings of the Indies; that is to say, I prostrated myself at his feet and kissed the earth. The prince ordered me to rise up, received me with ⟨an⟩ obliging ⟨air⟩ and made me come up and sit down near him He first asked me my name, and I answered Sindbad the Sailor, because of the many voyages I had undertaken, and that I was a ⟨citizen⟩ of Bagdad. "But' replies he, "How did ⟨yea⟩ come into my dominions, and from whence came you last?"
I concealed nothing from the king; I told him all that I have now told you and his majesty was so surprised and charmed with it, that he commanded my adventures to be writ in letters of gold, and laid up in the archives of his kingdom. As (illegible text) my float was brought to him, and the bales opened in his presence; he admired the quality of wood of aloes, and ambergrease but above all, the rubies and emeralds for he had none in his treasury that came near them
Observing that he looked on my jewels with pleasure, and viewed the most remarkable among them one after another, I fell prostrate at his feet, and took the liberty to say to him, “Sir not only my person is at your majesty's service, but the cargo of the float, and I beg of you to dispose of it as your own." He answered me with a smile, "Sindbad, I will take care not to covet any thing of yours, or to take any thing from you that God has given you; far from lessening your wealth, I design to augment it, and will not let you go out of my (illegible text) without marks of my liberality." All the answer I returned was prayers for the prosperity of that prince, and commendations of his generosity and ⟨bounty⟩. He charged one of his officers to take care of me, and ordered people to serve (illegible text)
